Wikimania 2013 bids/London

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Wikimania 2013 candidate cities:

Final Candidate Cities: Hong Kong | ~~London~~

Other Candidate Cities: ~~Surakarta~~ | ~~Bristol~~ | ~~Naples~~

In a nutshell

Country: United Kingdom
City: London
Venue: The Barbican Centre
Proposed dates: 31st July - 4th August
Planned attendance: 1000+ capacity, open to any Wikimedian or the public
Contact: Ed Saperia or email us - we're looking for volunteers!

Introduction

London is a leading global city, with unparalleled access to leading cultural institutions, high quality speakers, fundraising opportunities and the international media. The United Kingdom is home to one of the largest and most active Wikimedia communities in the world, and the local chapter is headquartered in London and is very active running local events and partnering with cultural institutions. The organising committee is half longtime wikipedia editors and half individuals with significant experience running large events.

London also boasts several organisations whose mandate is in part to provide support for international conferences: The Mayor's Office, London & Partners, TechCity & London First have all pledged logistical and fundraising support for our event.

Support from the Mayor of London	Support from London and Partners.
Support from Tech City UK.	(Support from London First, letter pending)

With this in mind, we propose a truly world class conference:

The venue we've chosen is The Barbican - a stimulating, characterful venue that is the largest performing arts centre in Europe. Amongst other facilities, it has two theatres, two art galleries, two resident orchestras, three cinemas, a large library including a dedicated arts library, music library and historical book collection, three restaurants, a handful of bars, and the second largest conservatory in the city. We'll have it all to ourselves for the weekend.
Industrial strength wifi (sponsored by Cisco), 24h access to the venue, and an impressive selection of large and small auditoriums, conference suites, meeting rooms and informal gathering spaces, with regular and varied onsite catering.
Seven simultaneous conference tracks and some very impressive keynote speakers, and for those unable to attend in person; livecasting, live projected backchat and an edited version released online same day.
A programme of cultural and social events for every evening of the conference:
- Friday: Dinner and an exclusive tour in The Science Museum.
- Saturday: Mixed cultural programme of music, comedy and fun in The Barbican.
- Sunday: Dinner and an exclusive tour in The Tate Modern.

Our city

London is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by some measures.

London is a leading global city, with strengths in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism and transport all contributing to its prominence.^[1] It is the world's largest financial centre alongside New York City^[2]^[3]^[4] and has the fifth-largest city GDP in the world (and the largest in Europe).^[5] It has the most international visitors of any city in the world^[6] and London Heathrow is the world's busiest airport.^[7] London's 43 universities form the largest concentration of higher education in Europe.^[8] In 2012 London will become the first city to host the modern Summer Olympic Games three times.^[9]

London is one of the greenest and most scenic major cities in the world. Famous landmarks in Central London include (in no particular order) St Paul's Cathedral, Big Ben, The Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, Nelson's Column, Trafalgar Square, The Tower of London, Tower Bridge, the London Eye and the 'Gherkin', the main shopping streets of Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road, as well as public squares, many museums and a very wide range of restaurants at all price ranges serving all the world's cuisines.
Open-top buses operate sight-seeing tours constantly, especially during the summer, and organising one as a breakout event for Wikimania should be no trouble. More specialised tours include boat trips on the River Thames and buses that can operate as boats ("duck tours").
Wikimedia UK already has good relations with several cultural institutions in London, including the the British Museum (above), the British Library so an event for those interested in GLAM could easily be arranged.

There are four World Heritage Sites in London

The Palace of Westminster (cs, de, es, fr, it, he, nl, ja, no, pl, pt, ro, fi, sv, zh )
The Tower of London (cs, da, de, es, fr, he, nl, ja, no, pl, pt, ru, sk, sl, fi, sv, zh)
Maritime Greenwich (de, fi, fr, he, la, nl, no, pl, ro, ru, sl, sv, tr)
Kew Gardens (cs, da, de, es, fi, fr, he, it, ja, nl, no, pt, sv)

London has 17 national museums across the city.
There are approximately 6,100 licensed restaurants in London - 22% of the restaurants in the whole of Great Britain. This includes 36 Michelin star rated restaurants and covers over 50 major country cuisines.
London is a city of green open spaces. In total, it comes to 30% of the London area, including 147 parks and gardens and eight royal parks, including Hyde Park and Regents Park.
London has 3,800 pubs and 233 nightclubs. Many venues are open after midnight.
You will often hear London described as a collection of villages. Local shops, markets, parks, and leisure venues foster a feeling of local community within a conurbation of seven million people. Some areas have a particularly strong identities and associations making London a world in one city.

A panorama of London, taken from the Golden Gallery of St Paul's Cathedral.

Our community

Attendees of the 50th London meetup, held in October 2011.

The United Kingdom is home to one of the largest Wikimedia communities in the world. The local chapter, Wikimedia UK, which has recently been granted registered charity status, is one of the larger and more experienced Wikimedia chapters. It has supported a wide array of events in the United Kingdom, and has a strong track record of productive collaborations with cultural institutions such as galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAM) as well as in broader outreach and educational projects.

In 2011, Wikimedia UK supported events at the British Museum and the British Library in London, and collaborations with the Victoria and Albert Museum and The National Archives are in the works. Outside the capital, events have also been held in Bristol, Coventry, Derby, Manchester, Brighton, Cambridge and Liverpool, as well as Scotland. The chapter has an ambitious schedule of events lined up for 2012 and beyond, including smaller conferences and an OTRS workshop in addition to more GLAM and outreach events.

The UK Wikimedia community is most active in and around London. The community is tight-knit, and the regular London meetups often attract a good turnout, including Wikimedians from a wide array of on-wiki and off-wiki backgrounds. These meetups started with the first ever Wikipedia meetup and have for some years been monthly. The London meetup is among the most regular as well as being the longest-running Wikimedia meetup in the world (our fiftieth was in October 2011) and are an excellent venue for discussing grand ideas like this one. The fifty-first London meetup, held in November 2011, was attended by Sue Gardner and several other members of Foundation staff, after which Sue went on to give a talk at Imperial College London.

Our Team

Name	Responsibility	Experience/Comments
Seddon	Bid Coordinator	Former WMUK board member, admin@enwiki
Harry Mitchell	Asst Bid Coordinator	English Wikipedia admin, some small-scale event-management experience, can handle some of the logistics, will most likely have attended Wikimania 2012 and some smaller Wikimedia conferences by 2013.
Marek69	Community Coordinator	I am an editor on the English Wikipedia. I have attended Wikimania in 2010 and 2011.
Ed Saperia	Event Coordinator	I have many years of event experience and a great many useful London contacts and resources. Jimmy entrusted me to organise the London VIP Wikipedia 10th Birthday party. My initial role will be overviewing the event design and programme and negotiating with venues.
Anastasia Andrianova	Fundraising & Corporate Sponsorship	Professional background in investment banking, principal investments and private equity. Experience of fundraising. Anastasia is working on the bid as a volunteer. Her primary areas of responsibility are fundraising and securing strategic participants/contributors to the event, i.e. helping Wikimedia UK secure all the resources necessary for a successful bid.
James Knight	Speakers & Presenters Coordinator	Investment Banking background with experience in events organisation. Currently working for a start-up company in Shoreditch while pursuing other projects.
Lauren Cahill	Asst Event Coordinator	I work in events, predominantly festivals and bespoke events, I met Ed at the Wikipedia fundraiser which he held in 2010 and am using my experience and contacts to assist with the logistics and develop a strong programme of immersive events for Wikimania 2013.
Chase me ladies, I'm the Cavalry (Richard Symonds)		I'm the Office & Development Manager at Wikimedia UK, although I am helping this bid as a volunteer. I'm well known on the English Wikipedia, which I have been editing since 2005.
Rock drum	General help	English Wikipedia editor of 2+ years and editor of This Month in GLAM. Organised small-scale, local events before. Languages: en-N, de-1, es-1.
Imogen Pickles	General Help	Experience in running smaller scale events, volunteering here wherever I'm needed.
Tom Morris		English Wikipedia admin, have helped with BarCamp London.

Declaration of Conflicts of Interest

Translation Team

This bid will lose its draft status over the weekend of the 31st of March. In the week following, it will be translated into...

Swedish, by Ljus Lykta (talk)

German, by Hannah Widmann

French, by Josephine Goubé

Farsi, by Maral Mohammadi

Norwegian, by Kristin Engesback

Irish Gaelic, by Roisin Kiberd

Hebrew, by Yair Schleider

Russian, by Tatiana Vetrova

Polish, by Paul PJW

Spanish, by Cécile Poulain

Punjabi and Hindi, by Steven Sethi

Partner Organisations

Name	Responsibility	Comments
London First	Logistical, PR and Fundraising support	Pending
London & Partners	Logistical, PR and Fundraising support	Confirmed
TechCity	PR and Fundraising support	Confirmed
Bluecat Productions	AV and conference programming support	Confirmed
FMCM	PR and conference programming support	Confirmed
Cisco	Wifi provision	Pending
TechCrunch Europe	Media Coverage	Confirmed
BBC	Media Coverage	Confirmed
Bloomberg L.P.	Media Coverage	Confirmed
Financial Times	Media Coverage	Confirmed
Reuters	Media Coverage	Pending
Out There Media	Mobile advertising	Confirmed
TechHub	Assisting in securing speakers and PR.	Confirmed

Statements of support

File:Stephen Fry Letter of Support for Wikimania London 2013.pdf

Stephen Fry Letter of Support

The event

The Barbican Centre

The venue sits at the heart of the Barbican Estate, a residential development bordering the Square Mile, London's financial district.

The Barbican Centre is a quirky and unusual venue, and has many different spaces within it. To properly understand our plan for the conference, you need to understand a bit how the venue is organised...

Foyer & Main Auditorium
- The Foyer is huge, although it naturally splits into many smaller areas over three levels and so never feels cavernous. It has several bars and cafes in it, as well as lots of seating areas. Parts of it can be used as exhibition space, and to set up seating and turn into presentation areas, and meeting and mingling spaces. It opens out onto Barbican Lakeside, a sizeable outdoor seating area that is next to an artificial waterway with fountains. It also includes dedicated cloakroom and registration facilities.
- Adjacent to the foyer is Barbican Hall, which is the primary auditorium for the venue. It has a capacity of just under 2000.
Conservatory Complex
- The Conservatory is a large indoor garden, home to finches, quails, exotic fish and over 2000 species of tropical plants and trees. It has a large glass roof and has capacity for around 150. It's above the Foyer.
- The Conservatory Terrace overlooks the main conservatory, and can accommodate around 200. We think this would be a spectacular place to hold the hackathon, with the main conservatory as the breakout space.
- The Garden Room adjoins the Conservatory and also has floor to ceiling windows overlooking Barbican Lakeside. It has capacity for 250, and we think it would be a good place to do the main catering for the conference.
Conference Suites
- On the same floor as the Conservatory Terrace, there are the conference suites. These are two large rooms that hold 170 each.
- Beside the conference suites, there are two auditoriums that hold 246 and 143, which we'll treat as part of the same grouping.

Schedule

Schedule Outline

		Hackathon	Conference	Public Talks	Evening Entertainment
Wednesday	31 Jul 2013	Conservatory Complex
Thursday	1 Aug 2013	Conservatory Complex
Friday	2 Aug 2013		Conference Suites + Conservatory Complex		Science Museum Dinner
Saturday	3 Aug 2013		Conference Suites + Conservatory Complex	Foyer & Main Auditorium	Comedy / Concert in Barbican
Sunday	4 Aug 2013		Conference Suites + Conservatory Complex	Foyer & Main Auditorium	Tate Modern Dinner

We propose the "Public Talks" as a track set in the main auditorium that is open to the public over the Saturday and Sunday with more of an outreach aim in mind.

Detailed Schedule

The proposed schedule for Wikimania London 2013 on Google Docs

Accessibility

The Main entrance at Silk Street is ramped and lifts give access to all levels. All the auditoriums have seating for wheelchair users. There are three wheelchairs for visitors' use.
An induction loop is provided in the Concert Hall and Cinemas, and a radio network system is provided in the Theatre and Pit.
Assistance dogs may be taken into the auditoriums.
Adapted WCs are provided on levels -2, -1, G, 1, 2, 3 & 4.
Full Accessibility Guide

Keynotes

Jimmy Wales

Founder of Wikipedia and co-founder of Wikia, Jimmy customarily gives a keynote at Wikimania events.

Clay Shirky

Clay Shirky is an American writer, consultant and teacher on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies. He has written and been interviewed extensively about the Internet since 1996. His columns and writings have appeared in Business 2.0, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Business Review and Wired. He is a member of the Wikimedia Foundation's Advisory Board.

Stephen Fry

Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter & film director. He is best known for hosting topical news panel QI and in various roles on Blackadder. Fry is an avid technology blogger and a strong supporter of Wikipedia.

Tim Berners-Lee

Sir Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee, is an English computer scientist, MIT professor and the inventor of the World Wide Web. Berners-Lee is the director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which oversees the Web's continued development. He is also the founder of the World Wide Web Foundation, and is a senior researcher and holder of the 3Com Founders Chair at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).[4] He is a director of The Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI),[5] and a member of the advisory board of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence.

Cultural Program

Friday - Science Museum Evening

Video of a Corliss steam engine in the Power Gallery in motion.

We plan on transporting delegates to the London Science Museum, located in the heart of South Kensington, one of the most culturally rich area of London. The museum is located on Exhibition Road, which hosts other famous venues such as Natural History Museum, Hyde Park the Royal Albert Hall, Imperial College London, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Royal Geographical Society, the Royal College of Art, the Royal College of Music and Baden-Powell House.

The Science Museum now holds a collection of over 300,000 items, including such famous items as Stephenson's Rocket, Puffing Billy (the oldest surviving steam locomotive), the first jet engine, a reconstruction of Francis Crick and James Watson's model of DNA, some of the earliest remaining Steam engines, a working example of Charles Babbage's Difference Engine (and the latter, preserved half brain), the first prototype of the 10,000-year Clock of the long Now, and documentation of the first typewriter.

The event will kick off at 7pm featuring canapés, drinks and a three course meal spanning three of the main galleries of the museum, one of which features a fully functioning Corliss steam engine. Transportation back to the Barbican centre will be provided at regular intervals throughout the evening. We have confirmed interest and received quotes from several production & catering companies including Wise productions and Payne and Gunter.

Saturday - Show at the Barbican

On Saturday evening we propose an evening of comedy and music hosted within the main hall of the Barbican. To those not familiar with British comedy, you will be treated to the often deadpan and self-deprecating humour which is synonymous with British culture. At present we have confirmed interest from Matt Parker (pioneer of Standup Maths) and spoken word artist Scroobius Pip in addition to being in talks with several acts including such household names as David Mitchell, Dara Ó Briain and Russell Howard.

Sunday - Tate Evening

We are currently in talks with Tate to host the Sunday evening at one of:

Tate Modern, the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year.^[10] Guests will be taken on a guided walk or open top bus tour from the Barbican Centre, where there will be an evening of canapes, cocktails and guided tours of the gallery.
Tate Britain, via boat trip down the River Thames. Tate Britain is the national gallery of British art from 1500 to the present day, with the most comprehensive collection of its kind in the world.

Both venues have a number of options for event hosting and we have arranged site visits and received quotes for both venues.

Legacy

One of our objectives for the conference is to leave a lasting legacy of content similar to that pioneered by the TED Conferences. We'll create a bespoke website to accompany the Wiki page, with the following features:

Livestreamed conference talks, with live backchat and twitter integration
Live footage edited on the fly and released online as condensed videos (via Blue Cat Productions)
A single point of sale for tickets (via Eventbrite integration)
Taster talks from speakers in the run up to the conference, slides and accompanying materials afterwards
Additional exposure for sponsors
A team of experts from Flexewebs.com will design a web site for the event, along with social marketing, technical support, upload videos to YouTube and provide hosting

Logistics

Accommodation

Map of Accommodation near the Barbican

Our logistics partners are currently contacting local hotels and universities finding pricing for block bookings.

YHA

We have support from the Youth Hostel Association, who have offered us over 1200 beds for attendees in Central London Youth Hostels, meaning that we will have guaranteed low-cost accommodation prebooked for all attendees. We are discussing the costs of this accommodation, but hostels are typically a low budget option easily available for the majority of attendees. As we will be block booking entire hostels close to the venue, you will be staying with other attendees, creating a great community atmosphere, and meaning that attendees can travel to events together.

Getting to the United Kingdom

International travel to the United Kingdom is extensive. Access to the UK is provided by 30 international airports providing travel to 200 destinations, 8 ports with international passenger ferry services to Europe, and a rail link to mainland Europe via the Channel Tunnel.

Train (via Belgium and France)

Eurostar high-speed trains run between London (St Pancras International), Ebbsfleet and Ashford through the Channel Tunnel to Paris (Gare du Nord), Lille and Brussels. During the summer an additional weekly train operates to Avignon. Through tickets and connections are available in Lille, Paris and Brussels from many European cities to most large UK cities.

Journey times average two hours fifteen minutes to and from Paris, and one hour fifty minutes to Brussels. A second class return from Paris to London costs between €85 and €230. While it can be cheaper to fly from London to Paris using a low-cost airline, bear in mind that the journeys to the airports can be expensive and time-consuming.

Ferry

Ferries run from Calais to Dover on a regular basis and a return ticket costs around £40. Journey times average at around an hour and a half. However, there are many other ports in the UK as well and travellers can access British ports from at least seven surrounding countries. Due to the relatively small size of Britain, it is not infeasible for someone to make the journey from their country to London within 24 hours.

It may be cheaper to fly on a low-budget airline but for the sightseer there are a variety of ways to travel into the country.

Air

London Heathrow Airport - The busiest airport in the United Kingdom and one of the busiest in the world (depending on measure). LHR serves a vast array of destinations, including long-haul services to Asia, North America, Oceania, the Middle East. For more information on destinations that can be reached from LHR, please see Heathrow Airport: airlines and destinations. The airport is on the edge of Greater London and can be reached by the fast Heathrow Express service, the semi-fast Heathrow Connect to Paddington then via London Underground to The Barbican Centre or the slower but cheaper London Underground all the way.
London Gatwick Airport - 30 miles outside of London, Gatwick serves fewer destinations but still has an extremely regular train service into Central London, with a mix of Thameslink services which call at several stations in London (including London Bridge, local services to London Victoria; and express services, which also terminate at Victoria. For a list of destinations served by Gatwick, please see Gatwick Airport: airlines and destinations
London City Airport - The smallest of London's three main airports.

London City Airport's destinations can be found at City Airport: airlines and destinations

London Luton Airport - Budget airline hub to the north of London; mostly serves destinations in Europe. Regular train service to London St Pancras.
London Stansted Airport - Also a budget airline hub, also predominantly serves Europe.

Travel costs

With many budget airlines and flag carriers flying in to London, flights are relatively cheap from most of the world.

The City of London is one of the world's largest financial centres alongside New York City.

From	Costs
Europe
Amsterdam	£64
Athens	£128
Dublin	£33
Frankfurt	£56
Istanbul	£82
Lisbon	£70
Madrid	£72
Moscow	£139
Oslo	£59
Paris	£49
Reykjavik	£257
Rome	£87
Vienna	£59
Warsaw	£79

From	Costs
North America
Atlanta	£431
Chicago	£507 (indirect)
Houston	£556
Los Angeles	£550 (indirect)
Mexico City	£732 (indirect)
Miami	£411
New York	£431
San Francisco	£540
Toronto	£466
Vancouver	£625
South America
Bogotá	£813 (indirect)
Buenos Aires	£683 (indirect)
Caracas	£685 (indirect)
Rio de Janeiro	£550 (indirect)
Santiago	£853 (indirect)

From	Costs
Oceania
Melbourne	£849 (indirect)
Sydney	£805 (indirect)
Auckland	£798 (indirect)
Africa
Cairo	£298
Johannesburg	£372 (indirect)
Nairobi	£380 (indirect)
Asia
Bangkok	£533 (indirect)
Delhi	£403 (indirect)
Hong Kong	£538 (indirect)
Jakarta	£564 (indirect)
Seoul	£593 (indirect)
Singapore	£499 (indirect)
Taipei	£773 (indirect)
Tel Aviv	£189
Tokyo	£598 (indirect)

The prices listed include all taxes and duties and are for a return flight to London leaving the city on Wednesday 11th July 2012, and returning Monday 16th July 2012 ^[11]^[12]

Visa issues

Yellow: Visa required
Blue: No visa required
Grey: Visa unknown

The United Kingdom is a member country of the European Union. This means that all citizens of EU member states with a valid travel document (passport or European ID card) are allowed to travel freely within the European Union (including the UK) for up to 3 months.

Given the high throughput of air traffic, the UK is a highly accessible country with those travelling from within the EU, North America, Japan, South Africa, Australasia or most of Latin America not requiring a visa to visit the UK.

Many people from other regions will also be able to visit the UK without a visa. To determine whether you will need a visa to visit the UK, go to www.ukvisas.gov.uk. The nature of any visa required will depend on your nationality and your current country of residence. The typical cost for a VISA for a short visit to the UK is £76.^[13] Wikimedia UK may be able to act as a sponsor for those that require one in order to get a visa.

The following individuals can enter the United Kingdom without a visa:

As of right

Citizens of Commonwealth countries who have the right of abode in the United Kingdom under the Immigration Act 1971
Citizens of European Union member states
Citizens of non-EU member states of the European Economic Area (Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) and Switzerland
British Nationals (whether they have the right of abode in the United Kingdom or not) of the following categories:

All the countries below have visa-free access to the EU for at least 90 days.

30 St Mary Axe, also known as the *Gherkin*

Austria*

Belgium*

Cyprus*

Denmark*

Estonia*

Finland*

France*

Germany*

Greece*

Guatemala

Honduras

Hungary*

Ireland*

Italy*

Latvia*

Malta*

Poland*

Romania*

Spain*

Sweden*

* - European Union member states

Getting around in London

Bus

National Express operate coach services from Victoria Coach Station and other points to destinations across the UK. Through their Eurolines subsidiary they also run coach services to London from destinations across Europe. [1] Many other companies run coach services to London from other European cities.
The Barbican is well served by buses, and can be reached by bus routes 153, 43 (24 hour service), 141, 100, 4, 56, 76, 21, 55 and 243 (24 hour service)

Tube

Heathrow Airport has a direct connection to the Piccadilly Line of the London Underground, which is considerably slower but considerably cheaper than the Heathrow Express (see below). The nearest Underground station to the venue is Barbican. Other stations nearby are Moorgate, St Paul's, Bank, Liverpool Street and Old Street.
All but one of Central London's rail termini have a direct connection to the London Underground. Different stations are on different lines, but all lines intersect, and the Barbican can be reached from every inner-London Tube station without needing to change more than once.
The Tube Map provides a colour-coded schematic of the London Underground, London Overground, and DLR networks. Copies are available for free at every Tube station and most Tourist Information Centres in London, as well as on the Transport for London website.

Train

Central London has 13 terminal stations. Most passengers travelling by rail from within the UK will arrive at one of these and would be advised to change to the London Underground to complete their journey.
Heathrow and Gatwick airports both have dedicated express train services that run non-stop into Paddington and Victoria respectively, where passengers can change to the London Underground for the final leg of their journey.
Eurostar operates high-speed services from Paris and Brussels to London St Pancras.

Taxi

A more expensive option than public transport, especially for those travelling from the airports. There are companies that specialise in private hire between airports and Central London which may be cheaper, but these usually require pre-booking.

Bicycle

London's cyclists enjoy a cheaper, and often quicker, way around town than those by public transport or car, and as many trips in London are local, these can easily be done by bike. As London's public transport system is over-stretched at peak times cycling can be a cheaper, quicker and more pleasant alternative. From July 2010, 6,000 bicycles are available for short-term rental from Transport for London under the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme at 400 docking stations in nine central London boroughs.

Getting to the Barbican

All of London's major airport have direct train links (Examples include Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted express) into the center of the city from which local transportation is available.

The nearest tube station to The Barbican is Barbican underground located on the Circle, Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City lines, however the venue is also within walking distance of Moorgate, Liverpool Street & St Pauls stations.

Bus routes near the Barbican are 8, 11, 23, 26, 35, 42, 43, 47, 48, 55, 56, 76,78, 100, 133, 141, 149, 153, 172, 214, 242, 243, 271, 344 (7 days a week); 4, (Mon-Sat); 21, 25, 521 (Mon-Fri).

The Barbican has 4 car parks capable of holding several hundred vehicles.

Financial

Budget

Pending, but imminent!

Sponsorship

The Wikimania 2013 London bid corporate fundraising strategy was developed with the objective of giving the Wikipedia community the best possible chance of bringing its together members in a high-quality, stimulating environment, whilst creating strong engagement with the public and increasing Wikipedia outreach.

The fundraising focuses on three core groups: media/telecom/tech companies, charitable foundations, and financial services companies. The Wiki sponsor offering will be tailored specifically to each group in order to maximise sponsorship opportunities for Wikipedia community. London Wikimania team has embarked on the sponsorship campaign. A list of potential candidates is detailed below.

Media, telecommunications and technology companies, seeking to widen their charitable outreach and address new demographic:
PayPal

eBay

Google

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Mozilla

BT

Orange

Telefonica
Charitable Foundations, sympathetic to the Wikipedia cause of free knowledge for all:
Wellcome Trust

Edmond J. Safra Philantropic Foundation

<names awaiting confirmation>
Financial services companies, seeking to widen their public/charitable outreach:
Morgan Stanley

Credit Suisse

Hoegh Capital Partners

Miscellaneous

Currency

The pound sterling (ISO 4217: GBP), known locally as the pound (£) is the currency of the United Kingdom, divided into one hundred pence (p).

Currency exchange desks are available at all London airports, as well as at the Post Office and most banks and travel agents. Australian Dollars, Canadian Dollars, Euros, Japanese Yen, Polish Złoty, Swedish Krona and United States Dollars are all widely exchanged; other currencies are usually exchangeable at the airports. A list of the current exchange rates of these and other important currencies is below.

Credit and Debit cards from banks round the world will work in cash machines in London - check with your bank.

London is an important financial centre. Your bank may well have a branch here; many overseas banks do to serve their diaspora community here.

Exchange rates as of 1 December 2011 (http://www.xe.com/)
Currency	Equivalent of GB£1	Equivalent in GB£
Australian Dollar	A$1.53	£0.65
Bangladeshi Taka	121.07 ৳	£0.0083
Brazilian Real	R$2.82	£0.35
Bulgarian Lev	2.28 лв	£0.44
Canadian Dollar	C$1.60	£0.63
Cambodian Riel	៛6345.69	£0.00016
Chinese Yuan	¥10.02	£0.10
Danish Krone	8.67 Dkr	£0.12
Egyptian Pound	9.45ج.م.	£0.11
Euro	€1.17	£0.86
Hong Kong Dollar	HK$12.22	£0.082
Icelandic Króna	186.32 Íkr	£0.0054
Indian Rupee	₹81.00	£0.012
Indonesian Rupiah	Rp 14157.00	£0.000070
Israeli Shekel	₪5.89	£0.17
Japanese Yen	¥122.31	£0.0082
Kenyan Shilling	KSh 141.73	£0.0071
Mexican Peso	Mex$21.36	£0.047

Currency	Equivalent of GB£1	Equivalent in GB£
New Zealand Dollar	NZ$2.02	£0.50
Nigerian Naira	₦253.62	£0.0039
Norwegian Krone	9.06 kr	£0.11
Peruvian Nuevo Sol	S/. 4.25	£0.24
Polish Złoty	5.24 zł	£0.19
Russian Ruble	48.31 руб.	£0.021
Saudi Riyal	ر.س5.90	£0.17
Singapore Dollar	S$2.02	£0.50
Swedish Krona	10.61 kr	£0.094
South African Rand	R12.70	£0.079
South Korean Won	₩1769.85	£0.00057
Swiss Franc	S₣1.43	£0.70
Taiwan New Dollar	NT$47.42	£0.021
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Climate

London has a temperate oceanic climate, and interestingly receives less precipitation (with 601 mm in a year), than Rome at 834 mm, Bordeaux at 923 mm, Toulouse at 668 mm, and Naples at 1,006 mm per year.^[14]^[15]^[16]^[17]^[18] Summers are warm and sometimes hot, the heat being boosted by the "Urban Heat Island Effect" making the centre of London at times 5 degrees Celsius warmer than the suburbs and outskirts. London's summer average is a comfortable 24 degrees Celsius.

Self-evaluation

Strengths of the proposed location

Openness to all
London is a city where all nationalities, religions, and sexualities are welcome to visit without threat or worry about the possibility of 'issues' with the local population, police or security services. London is the most cosmopolitan city in the world with every nationality, culture and language represented in our schools and everyday lives, (and which also gives us the widest range of cuisine at all prices!) Similarly lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) people will find a safe and public welcome here without any risks from their public or private actions, just as there are places of worship for a wide variety of religious groups and denominations. This is a country that welcomes and supports free speech and free expression.
Ease of access
London is the crossroads of the world. Heathrow is the busiest international airport in the world and with five international airports - each with integrated onward fast train or tube services to the Wikimania venue - and an international highspeed railway service from Europe we are probably the easiest place for people to get to no matter where they start. And that multiplicity of travel routes usually means cheaper prices from the competition, indeed our checking of flight prices has shown we are the cheapest destination from just about everywhere.

London itself has excellent transport connections to the entire world by air, and by road and rail to the rest of the UK and to Continental Europe; the venue can be reached in less than an hour from all three of London's main airports.
Opportunities to learn, explore, meet and enjoy
Coming to Wikimania is not just about sharing our thoughts and ideas about Wikimedia, Wikinews, Wikisource, Wiktionary and the other projects in every language, but also to meet other editors socially and to have a brief visit to a new place at the same time. Wikimania London 2013 will not only provide facilities 'on campus' throughout the conference for these to happen but will also encourage visitors to take in the sights, the history and culture of London and the nightlife
One of the largest communities of Wikimedia contributors
The UK is the country which contributes the third most edits to Wikipedia as a whole. (some rough statistics), making its editors the most active from a country which has not yet hosted Wikimania, as well as one of the highest contributors per capita overall.

British Wikimedians have been at the forefront of GLAM partnerships and outreach. In London, there have been partnerships with the British Museum, British Library and the Victoria and Albert Museum. British Wikimedians have also been involved in other collaborations outside London: the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry, the National Museum of Scotland and the Monmouthpedia collaboration.
Extensive Broadcast and Print Media Base
London is home to some of the world's biggest broadcasters and publishers. The UK's largest radio group - Gcap Media - are based in Leicester Square. Fleet Street is home to some of the oldest and most prestigious titles whilst the relatively new in comparison Canary Wharf is the UK base for many of the world's biggest FTSE100 companies as well as the Trinity Mirror publishing group.

London is also home to a wide range of highly prestigious broadcast radio stations including Capital 95.8 (official station of the 2012 Olympics) and major UK national stations such as Virgin Radio, Talksport and Classic FM.

The world famous BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) is also based at numerous sites in London including Television Centre and Broadcasting House - two of the most renowned and historic media centres in the world.

Weaknesses of the proposed location

...and how to overcome those weaknesses

Expense - London can be an expensive city at the best of times.
Proposed solution - Attempt to have whatever we can subsidised by our sponsors. This may mean donations in kind rather than monetary donations.

Accommodation This could be the biggest problem. This is the height of the tourist season so everywhere will be expensive. There is lots of student accommodation in London but it is all let to tourists in summer so will not be available cheaply to us.

Food Around the Barbican there are a mixture of expensive and cheap eating places and a wide range of cuisine at competitive prices. We will issue attendees with a guide (in collaboration with Travelwiki?).

Museums and galleries and monuments State and municipal Museums and galleries are mostly free though you have to pay for the Tower of London and Westminster Abbey and for privately run commercial attractions such as Madame Tussauds and the London Dungeon and for plays, concerts and movies. We should be able to get money off vouchers for many of these to give to attendees.
England is too English oriented. Only 3.1% of edits from the UK are to other languages besides English - the lowest percentage of any country Wikipedia:Edits by project and country of origin. Coming after Wikimania being held in Washington DC this could be a disadvantage.
London is too big. Wikimania will be just one small event and will not get as much attention as it would in a smaller venue.
Wikimania is as big as we dare make it. We have enough media contacts and PR resources that we could publicise this extremely well, especially within e.g. the tech community. As long as we are clear what we aim to get out of the coverage surrounding the conference, there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to achieve those goals.
Most attendees will have to change trains or change to the London Underground to complete their journey
The proposed venue at The Barbican Cente is in a great location surrounded by lots of different tube stations, making it one of the easiest places to get to in London. Guidance will be available on using the Underground System for all attendees.

Negotiate with London Tourism and about placing signs at Airports and Mainline stations where people will arrive, with guidance (and QRpedia codes?) on how to get to the venue. Email attendees a Tube Map and/or directions from their point of arrival in the UK to the station? Have staff/volunteers in highly visible, Wikimania-branded clothing on hand at airports/major public transport interchanges to provide directions and assistance to attendees (or to collect groups of people and take them to the venue)?
The ticketing system for British public transport system (especially the trains) is baffling, even to those who use it regularly
While it is difficult to get the cheapest train ticket (as it is for cheap flights) it is straightforward to get a ticket. We will provide info to help those who need the cheapest ticket to find it. Others will pay a little extra and still get here.

Give attendees the option, when registering online, to request their tickets in advance? Have staff/volunteers on hand to give out pre-booked tickets and/or assist attendees in purchasing tickets on the day? Dedicated branded tickets/Oyster cards for attendees (would require discussion with TfL)?